Core gamer, have played 18-20 hours straight a day, usually rack up at least four - five hours a day...but eh...what the frakk is Megaman? And I'm no kid I'm 25, but never heard of the thing...so I'm not core...frakk you weird university chronicle man!

To be fair if you put yourself under a title you're asking for trouble anyway. But my two cents to this discussion is that anyone who calls themself a title based on what they enjoy, then they take an active interest in that hobby. This is why i don't consider casual family wii "gamers" gamers. Because aside from the use at parties and such, they don't take an active interest in the hobby.

The exact same way a footballer (British terms here) who plays for fun doesn't consider himself a footballer, just a person having fun. Or a person playing ping pong isn't an... ping ponger?

Allow me to disagree. Gamers are people who really appreciate games as an artform or as a valid, exciting means for entertainment. Also, I use the term "gamer" not with the intention to exclude or belittle, but as a term that defines someone with whom I share a common passion or interest. Two examples of people that I do not consider to be "gamers":

1) A female friend of mine who does play Farmville but got bored and yawned during Bioshock's intro (you know, bathysphere goes down, Ryan explains that he has created a utopia of men without masters, Welcome to Rapture, whale swims below you). You know what Farmville is to her? A way to kill time, an alternative to cracking her knuckles or playing with her hair. She does not understand gaming, it is of no value to her, therefore not a gamer.

2) Two male friends of mine who own kickass PC's but have never bought a game for them, but still bought a Wii, because "it understands movement and you can, like, run Tennis on it and it's like swinging a racket". You know what the Wii is to them? Not a console that allows you to experience Zelda games or Mario games or whatever. It's just another cool gadget that they can place right next to the billions of other gadgets that they own and never ever use. Again, not gamers. Doesn't make them lesser beings in any way, but we certainly do not share a common interest there.

If someone wants to call themself a gamer, that's usually fine (as long as you dont apply the "hardcore" label, that one's gotta be earned) but please people, don't go calling everyone who's played Solitaire or Wii Play a gamer, it depreciates the name we call ourselves.

well gaming has been around long before video games right? i think if you have played freeze tag, hide and seek or any of the other childhood games you are a gamer. so even if you say you hate games mr. atkinson almost everyone is part of the collective might as well submit 8P

I don't think its immature to find it annoying that people who "play" casual games call themselves gamers. Its not so much that its a title to be earned, its a word which you would use to emphasise that not only you play games but also that this hobby makes up a part of your personality and the person you are today. Managing a fictional farm because of your OCD disorder does not make you a gamer. A gamer enjoys the challenge and the experience of gaming. If someone loves a game like farmville or bejewelled more than I personally think is possible, then sure, they could call themselves a gamer. However I don't think games like that can really give the same experience that "real" games can, for lack of a better name. When it truely becomes the hobby they enjoy and are not just addicted to/are using to pass the time, they should call themselves gamers. Until that point, they are just jumping on the bandwagon of the new popular "thing" to be into.

nelsonr100:Managing a fictional farm because of your OCD disorder does not make you a gamer.

What if you get incredibly good at a FPS because of your OCD? As it's used both socially and in the article, the title "gamer" is as much about privileging one genre of game as it is about the motivation, skill, or commitment of the people who play them.

If you say so. It really comes across to me more as him being a whiny, elitist jerk who wants to retain his outsider status because it separates him from the non-gaming plebs, inferior specimens of humanity that they are. If he wants to stay in the basement and hiss at the light, that's his perogative. Meanwhile, I'll be over here appreciating the widening of gaming, and so will the millions of plebs who love a game of Bejewelled.

Once again your second sentence just omits everything I typed. It isn't about maintaining that order. Also thanks for putting out the negative stereotype essentially belittling the community that you are posting in. Good work on that.

What it is about is not maintaining that essential rejection of the community but having those that are new to the hobby understand what came before you. It is important to understand that simply grabbing a game console and buying a game doesn't really make you a gamer. There needs to be an actual investment of the individual.

You don't expect a person to grab a camera and then instantly say they are an expert photographer. Or buy some ingredients and say they are a cook do you? Chances are you don't because there is a level of investment and quality that can be measured such as time.

I like that gaming has expanded but what I don't like are those people and companies that essentially exploit the hobby and the people who really don't have a commitment to the hobby but are in it for the money or the fame without understanding the history.

I hope you get it this time because I really don't know how to explain it again.

nelsonr100:Managing a fictional farm because of your OCD disorder does not make you a gamer.

What if you get incredibly good at a FPS because of your OCD? As it's used both socially and in the article, the title "gamer" is as much about privileging one genre of game as it is about the motivation, skill, or commitment of the people who play them.

As I said, I think if you genuinely enjoy the experience then you can call yourself a gamer. I used that analogy simply to illustrate that people who play these games without actually gaining anything from it should not call themselves gamers. They are time wasters.

I think you can be a gamer by playing something like farmville, though I doubt there are many genuinely enjoyable moments in the "game". Equally someone playing COD simply due to their obsession isn't getting anything from it, and if thats all they do, they arn't a gamer either.(They are most likly a [use your imagination] tbh)

I spoke a while ago with a friend about this topic, and she raised an example from the world of photography. Today, everyone and their grandma have a camera. Stores offer a wide selection of affordable cameras of all sorts, we've got cameras plugged in to our computers, and even got cameras in our mobiles. We've got cameras coming down our proverbial arses. All we need to do to take a photo these days is to take out our mobile and snap. Does that make everyone a photographer?

Some might say yes, if you take photos that makes you a photographer. I say: heck no!

There's a difference between taking a quick snapshot of your buddies on your mobile's camera to the craft, skill and dedication it requires to produce truly impressive, quality photos. There are people out there who truly care about the art of photography, who try to learn more about it and take part in it, not necessarily on a professional level. Are they to be placed on the same level of craft as some random person with barely enough skill to point the camera and click?

The same can be said of writers, artists, divers, boaters, mountain-climbers, skiers or whatever. Anyone can write, or draw, or get underwater, or go on a boat, or ascend a mountain, but few do it with the appreciation and dedication of true enthusiasts.

So why can't the same apply for gaming?

For me, the title of "gamer" isn't one of some pretended superiority, an exhibition of one's "uber" skill and achievements in some virtual world, or the devaluation of the "casual gamer". But it does mean something. It means an appreciation of the activity, perhaps a degree of enthusiasm to the medium as a whole. It means belonging to a unique subculture that the so-called gamers have formed around them. It says that "you may dabble in games from time to time, but me? I game.".

This doesn't mean to imply, at least not for me, that people who play gamers "casually" are any less than a "real gamer", or that this activity is some form of heresy, and that there is something wrong with it. Being a "gamer" is merely an arbitrary title that separates the dabbler from the enthusiast.

If you play games of any kind, you would fall into 1 of these categories.

Truth, simply. Of course you could further divert from this (Hardcore then Pro gamers as a fourth).

I knew I was forgetting something. This could be even further expanded with something before Casual Gamers... Pre Gamers, the people who only play games like Wii Sport, Wii Fit and Brain Trainer (which I dont really class the last 2 as games anyways)

Daggermonkie:there are gamers and casual gamers and the normal gaming pretty much hate the casual gamers for calling themselves gamers but really?If you play games you are a gamer because gamer means a person who plays gamer right?

This, mostly

Everyone who plays games is a gamer but we have core and casual Casual gamers are those who may play occasionally while core gamers generally devote a bit of time to a game

It doesn't matter about skill or even what games you play, I play Etrian Odyssey and I play Wii SportsMy friend owns and has completed every single Final Fantasy title released in the UK but he also plays Farmville

Can this guy say neither of us are 'real' gamers due to the fact that simple games are often just as fun as complicated or hard games.

I'm really not a fan of the debate. I remember when "casual" games first came out people were like ok fine they are casual gamers.But them some one down the line was like wait no, we don't want to be different we're just gamers. And now its back to a definition of gamer. I don't get why people just couldn't keep levels of "gamer". Seriously the other day a guy told me his grandmother was a gamer, and I did a double take and was like wha?? yea his little brother convinced his mom to get the grandmother a DS and some memory game because grandma was always forgetting things. Other mediums have levels, like even on the escapist we have our titles based on post #, the same should be on a variety or number of games under your belt. All you do is play farmville, maybe one or two other games? Casual. You enjoy a decent variety of games, Gamer. You have a library of games that you have played and enjoy. Gaming Enthusiast. You own everything, have played more hours than you have slept. Hardcore. [All subject to variations, etc]

Daveman:I guess I'd say what makes somebody a "gamer" is if they keep up to date with the surrounding world of gaming. I mean I play golf occasionally but I'm not really a golfer, a golfer knows who won the Ryder Cup last year and how to put backspin on a chip, although they may not have the best execution. That's the way I define being a gamer.

People are still trying to decide who is and isn't a gamer?Man... Old, obnoxious classifications never really die.

They're no worse than the people feuding over what's "hardcore" or "casual."

Let's set the record straight: You play games? You are a gamer. This isn't some A-list club, or the VIP room, where you had to beat all of the challenges of God of War while eating a bowl of soup to gain access to the title.

The fact is that identity isn't actually something you can take away from (or give to) others. They define it for themselves. Anyone who says, "you're not such and such because you don't do such and such" is merely listening to the drum beat of their own ego. There is no reason why the other person should listen to such subjective nonsense.

Being a gamer is no different. We are gamers because we call ourselves gamers. No more, and no less. The action of gaming merely chooses the word "gamer" for us initially, we then take the word and use it how we will. It will only change meaning more over time.

Semantically, I do think that the word, "gamer" is too general to extend to identifying whether you are truly hardcore or not. How hardcore we are should decide whether we call ourselves hardcore gamers or not, rather than whether we are gamers in general. Not only that, but being so exclusive a club is just a mirroring of the cliquish behaviour that I suspect was the cause of many a gamer's alienation in the bad old days. If we have any moral consistency, we should not act in such a way. Inclusiveness in this instance makes social, moral and semantic sense.

I do agree people who play games like "Farmville" are not gamers. However, I do not believe you have to achieve some goal like "beat Megaman 2 without dying" or "beat M.Bison in story mode in under 45 seconds" to be called a gamer. My definition is if you play games that you can lose and that are genuinely hard (because of challenge, not poor controls) and keep playing those games through thick and thin, then yes you are a gamer.

Have you played Tetris more than once and enjoyed it? You're a gamer.

DO you play Halo 3 online? You're a gamer.

Have you beaten a JRPG? You're a gamer.

Do you stay up at night challenging your friends to multiple rounds of Soul Calibur? You're a gamer.

Well, I agree with the view of the article. But I also have a theory about why people do this: they need to feel superior. Think about how video game stories go: you are 1 guy, misunderstood, and set with an impossible task. Yet some how, through a combination of skill, you succeed, and return to humanity a hero, loved by all. Often as not, you get the girl too.

Now think about that. Does that not sound like the power fantasy? Gaming is a way to feel superior, especialy in a world where nerdy qualities are constantly demonized.

I can't speak for other gamers, but I feel a lot smarter than a lot of people, simply because I'm good at school and better at gaming. Gaming is the one thing I am better at than the jocks, the smokers, the preps, ect.(yes, I am in high school). It's my claim to fame, "I can kick your ass left and right in halo!". Being good at it, and being the only one good at it makes me feel superior. Helps me feel like I've earned the title gamer.

But now any dumb bitch can hop on Facebook and play farm town, requiring no skill and no devotion, and earn the same title I have spent the better part of my life working towards. I am no longer considered superior to anyone else, as the one thing I'm good at anybody can do now.